The Death of Social Housing

It seems that not everyone is as dismayed as I am at today's announcement by Tory Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, that the statutory homeless and vulnerable will be forced into high cost, insecure, unregulated private rental accommodation.

Rachman may be dead but his spirit lives on amongst those minority of criminal landlords who just see the homeless as cash cows to be ruthlessly exploited.

Not only that but we now find that tenants may be evicted from their homes if their incomes rise during their new fixed term tenancies.

So - no more mixed communities then; just ghettos of the disabled, the unemployed and the  poverty stricken.

To complete the misery check out Hammersmith & Fulham Labour Group Leader, Stephen Cowan's report on the future "Housing Benefits Homeless Tsunami?" here

Last month I blogged about the End of Social Housing here following the decision to end capital grants for new build and instead depend on near market rents for funding.

Today though is definitely its death nail. We will have to campaign hard for its rebirth.

Housing Matters 10 January 2010

It’s been quite a little while since my last Housing matters post. Life flies by and all that. Anyway:-

Housing Minister John Healey has agreed to address a meeting of UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link members at the House of Commons next month. I’ll post details as soon as things are finalised.

Very worrying “Inside Housing” report here that nearly a quarter of supported housing providers are considering (or have decided) to pull out of existing contracts when they end. The reason given is the failure of Council’s to increase the price of contracts in line with costs. This could result in even further cost reductions and either the dropping of standards or a reduction in already poorly paid staff terms and conditions (or both!). Even more bad news for staff here, here and here

Roof reports on plan for a national register of social housing tower blocks. Which will include details of the fire risk assessment date of next assessment. Good news but what about the privately owned blocks?

24Dash reports that London tenants are the unhappiest in England and Wales! I blame of course Boris.

While CLG report here on the biggest Council house building programme in 20 years! (so there is a 4th option!)

The FED report that 10,000 affordable homes could be built if Churches sold land and buildings to Housing Associations! Apparently the Church of England owns on average 8 acres per village and every village place of worship could deliver on average one affordable dwelling.

No doubt Cromwell would approve!

Margaret Beckett: New Housing Minister

Good news about Margaret Beckett being appointed as Housing Minister. There has been some understandable moans in the housing press about the “churn” in housing ministers (she is the 8th Labour minister and there has been 3 in the last year alone!).

However, she is a big hitter – former deputy leader of the Labour party (the technical leader for 3 months when John Smith died), and former Foreign Secretary, Environment secretary etc. She has even the rare experience of having served as a minister in the Wilson and Callaghan governments.

Margaret (who I do not personally know) is a “serious person for serious times" (says our Gordon).

Housing is nowadays rightly a key (and serious) issue and her appointment will bring it further up the political agenda.

This is more evidence to me anyway of a subtle change by the PM. He has brought back into the government people who are not his natural supporters but are talented and are much needed to get us into shape for the coming general election. Peter Mandelson is the other far more controversial example.

Margaret is loyal, has good links and associations with traditional Labour and is a safe pair of hands as well as being a first-class media performer.

Given her trade union background I am also looking forward to the housing unions (UNISON and Unite) having good access to her department - “fairness not favours” of course.

I couldn’t resist using the cartoon above by the Guardian cartoonist, Martin Rowson, for this post – but I think that the deeply unpleasant sniggering and snide comments made about Margaret’s love of caravanning is a symptom of what you get when the nation’s self appointed elite are so detached from reality, that they think a fortnight in a Devon caravan park is somehow beneath them.

No wonder so many of them had equally deranged beliefs about the ability of the "market" to self regulate and to deal with the corrupt and dishonest so-called "masters of the financial universe". So who’s sniggering now I suppose?

(Out a sense of blogger loyalty I must say it was a shame that rail minister Tom Harris lost his job – may I say that I'm sure it is only a timetabling problem).